U.S. patent application number 11/136273 was filed with the patent office on 2006-01-05 for image processing method.
Invention is credited to Takashi Ishikawa.
Application Number | 20060001676 11/136273 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 35513375 |
Filed Date | 2006-01-05 |
United States Patent
Application |
20060001676 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Ishikawa; Takashi |
January 5, 2006 |
Image processing method
Abstract
An image processing method includes inputting electronic image
data to be scrambled, decomposing the input electronic image data
into n colors (n is an integer) and producing m pieces of color
decomposition data for each color (m is an integer), producing
palette data in which each of the m pieces of color decomposition
data is assigned a palette identification number, producing palette
exchange data based on predetermined conditions, exchanging palette
identification numbers of the color decomposition data based on the
produced palette exchange data, and synthesizing the m pieces of
color decomposition data whose palette identification numbers are
exchanged, encoding the synthesized data, and outputting the
encoded data as a piece of scrambled image data.
Inventors: |
Ishikawa; Takashi;
(Hachioji-shi, JP) |
Correspondence
Address: |
STRAUB & POKOTYLO
620 TINTON AVENUE
BLDG. B, 2ND FLOOR
TINTON FALLS
NJ
07724
US
|
Family ID: |
35513375 |
Appl. No.: |
11/136273 |
Filed: |
May 24, 2005 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
345/589 ;
375/E7.265 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H04N 1/644 20130101;
H04K 1/00 20130101; H04N 1/448 20130101; H04N 19/593 20141101 |
Class at
Publication: |
345/589 |
International
Class: |
G09G 5/02 20060101
G09G005/02 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Jun 15, 2004 |
JP |
2004-176778 |
Claims
1. An image processing method for subjecting electronic image data
to predetermined image processing, the method comprising: inputting
electronic image data to be processed; decomposing the input
electronic image data into n colors (n is an integer) and producing
m pieces of color decomposition data for each color (m is an
integer); producing palette data in which each of the m pieces of
color decomposition data is assigned a palette identification
number; producing palette exchange data based on predetermined
conditions; exchanging palette identification numbers of the color
decomposition data based on the produced palette exchange data; and
synthesizing the m pieces of color decomposition data whose palette
identification numbers are exchanged, encoding the synthesized
data, and outputting the encoded data as a piece of scrambled image
data.
2. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein the
palette exchange data is produced based on a pseudo random number
producing process using, as an initial value, one of a common key,
a public key and an arbitrary number input by a user.
3. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein the
palette exchange data is produced based on characteristics
extracted from the input electronic image data.
4. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein n is a
fixed integer.
5. The image processing method according to claim 1, wherein n is
an integer, which is changed in accordance with a total number of
colors of the input electronic image data.
6. An image processing method for subjecting processed electronic
image data, which has been subjected to predetermined image
processing, to inverse image processing, the method comprising:
inputting scrambled electronic image data; decoding the input
electronic image data and producing m pieces of color decomposition
data from the decoded electronic image data (m is an integer);
inputting palette exchange data produced by a predetermine
sequence; exchanging palette data of the respective m pieces of
color decomposition data based on the palette exchange data; and
synthesizing the palette data-exchanged color decomposition data
and outputting the synthesized data as a piece of electronic image
data.
7. A computer-readable recording medium storing a computer program
for executing an image processing method, the method comprising:
inputting electronic image data to be scrambled; decomposing the
input electronic image data into n colors (n is an integer) and
producing m pieces of color decomposition data for each color (m is
an integer); producing palette data in which each of the m pieces
of color decomposition data is assigned a palette identification
number; producing palette exchange data based on predetermined
conditions; exchanging palette identification numbers of the color
decomposition data based on the produced palette exchange data; and
synthesizing the m pieces of color decomposition data whose palette
identification numbers are exchanged, encoding the synthesized
data, and outputting the encoded data as a piece of scrambled image
data.
8. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 7,
wherein the palette exchange data is produced based on a pseudo
random number producing process using, as an initial value, one of
a common key, a public key and an arbitrary number input by a
user.
9. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 7,
wherein the palette exchange data is produced based on
characteristics extracted from the input electronic image data.
10. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 7,
wherein n is a fixed integer.
11. The computer-readable recording medium according to claim 7,
wherein n is an integer, which is changed in accordance with a
total number of colors of the input electronic image data.
12. An image processing method comprising: inputting scrambled
electronic image data; decoding the input electronic image data and
producing m pieces of color decomposition data from the decoded
electronic image data (m is an integer); inputting palette exchange
data produced by a predetermine sequence; exchanging palette data
of the respective m pieces of color decomposition data based on the
palette exchange data; and synthesizing the palette data-exchanged
color decomposition data and outputting the synthesized data as a
piece of electronic image data.
13. A computer-readable recording medium storing a computer program
for executing an image processing method, the method comprising:
inputting scrambled electronic image data; decoding the input
electronic image data and producing m pieces of color decomposition
data from the decoded electronic image data (m is an integer);
inputting palette exchange data produced by a predetermine
sequence; exchanging palette data of the respective m pieces of
color decomposition data based on the palette exchange data;
synthesizing the palette data-exchanged color decomposition data
and outputting the synthesized data as a piece of electronic image
data.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is based upon and claims the benefit of
priority from prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-176778,
filed Jun. 15, 2004, the entire contents of which are incorporated
herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to an image processing
method.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] In recent years, as digital still cameras or the like have
been widely used, personal users who handle digitized images and
pictures have been increasing. Many of the images and pictures have
been increasingly disclosed to the public through the Internet or
intranets. In some cases, specific image data is distributed at
charge to a person who wishes to buy the data, or to a specific
user through a network site, which can be accessed by unspecified
users. In such cases, generally, a password is set to obtain the
image, or the image to be distributed is scrambled or mosaicked. To
distribute a scrambled image, a transmitter side must have
scrambling means, and a receiver side must have scramble releasing
(descrambling) means. A scanning line signal switching method or a
scanning line shifting method, utilizing random arrangement, are
known as the image scrambling methods. In the former method, the
order of data in a scanning line is changed. In the latter method,
data is shifted from one scanning line to another. Further, Jpn.
Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 5-103326 discloses a method for
produce a scrambled image by forming new two field images from two
field images in one frame so as not to reduce the compression
ratio.
[0006] In the case where the password setting method is employed,
it is necessary to use a password management server and
collectively manage the access rights of all persons who wish to
buy the image data on the server, although no hardware is required.
In the case where the scramble distribution method is employed,
both software and hardware load is required, although there is no
need of managing the access rights.
[0007] Since the scrambling process in the transmitter side is
performed independent of a compressing process, the following
drawback occurs: if the scrambling process is performed after the
compressing process, it is necessary to transmit data without an
error in descrambling. On the other hand, if the compressing
process is performed after the scrambling process, the compression
is reduced due to the reduction of a correlation between adjacent
pixels.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] An object of the present invention is to provide a scramble
image processing method, which can easily realize scramble image
processing only by adding a simple structure and suppress the
reduction in compression ratio to a relatively small degree.
[0009] To achieve the above object, according to an aspect of the
present invention, there is provided an image processing method for
subjecting digital electronic image data to predetermined image
processing, the method comprising: inputting electronic image data
to be processed; decomposing the input electronic image data into n
colors (n is an integer) and producing m pieces of color
decomposition data for each color (m is an integer); producing
palette data in which each of the m pieces of color decomposition
data is assigned a palette identification number; producing palette
exchange data based on predetermined conditions; exchanging palette
identification numbers of the color decomposition data based on the
produced palette exchange data; and synthesizing the m pieces of
color decomposition data whose palette identification numbers are
exchanged, encoding the synthesized data, and outputting the
encoded data as a piece of scrambled image data.
[0010] Advantages of the invention will be set forth in the
description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the
description, or may be learned by practice of the invention.
Advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means
of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out
hereinafter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING
[0011] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and
constitute a part of the specification, illustrate embodiments of
the invention, and together with the general description given
above and the detailed description of the embodiments given below,
serve to explain the principles of the invention.
[0012] FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a scrambling portion,
which performs a scrambling process of an image processing method
according to an embodiment of the present invention;
[0013] FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a descrambling portion,
which performs a descrambling process of the image processing
method according to the embodiment of the present invention;
[0014] FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining unitization of image
data;
[0015] FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of palette data;
[0016] FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of unit data;
[0017] FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining details of the flow of
the scrambling process according to the embodiment of the present
invention;
[0018] FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining details of the flow of
the descrambling process according to the embodiment of the present
invention;
[0019] FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing unitized image data;
and
[0020] FIG. 9 is a diagram showing palette data in regions 1 to
d.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0021] An embodiment of the present invention will be described
with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0022] FIG. 1 shows a structure of a scrambling portion, which
performs a scrambling process of an image processing method
according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2
shows a structure of a descrambling portion, which performs a
descrambling process of the image processing method. Configurations
and operations of these portions will be described in detail.
[0023] As shown in FIG. 1, the scrambling portion includes a color
decomposing section 1, a palette forming section 2, a palette
exchanging section 3, a palette exchange data producing section 4,
a synthesizing section 5 and a compressing and encoding section
6.
[0024] In this configuration, when electronic image data to be
scrambled is input to the color decomposing section 1, the color
decomposing section 1 decompose the electronic image data (for
example, about 170,000 colors in the case of a full-color image)
into a predetermined numbers (n numbers: n is an integer, for
example, 256 in this embodiment) for each of the color
components.
[0025] In the color decomposition, each of the 256 colors is
decomposed into areas (hereinafter referred to as units) and, for
example, m pieces of color decomposition data for each color are
produced (m is an integer). The palette forming section 2 forms a
palette of the color decomposition data, which have been decomposed
for each of the 256 colors. In general, in the case of a full-color
image, a color is represented by R, G and B components. A palette
represents a color by one value.
[0026] In the palette forming process described above, the palette
forming section 2 produces palette data to which a unit symbol as
an identification number is assigned. More specifically, image data
is unitized as shown in FIG. 3, and the unit symbol of each unit is
associated with RGB pixel values by the palette data shown in FIG.
4.
[0027] The symbol EOP assigned to the end of the unit means "End Of
Palette". The end of the unit is recognized by this symbol.
[0028] Thereafter, the palette exchanging section 3 exchanges
palettes of the respective units, thereby carrying out the
scrambling process. For example, if the palette forming section 2
defines a palette 1 for the area 1 and a palette 2 for the area 2,
when the palettes of the respective units are exchanged, the
original image data is scrambled at the time of exchange. At this
time, the palette exchange data producing section 4 produces
palette exchange data under predetermined conditions. As shown in
FIG. 5, unit data represents a palette symbol corresponding to each
unit.
[0029] The synthesizing section 5 synthesizes data, which have been
separated for the respective units 1, 2,. . . . The compressing and
encoding section 6 compresses and encodes the synthesized data. The
compressing and encoding process is performed by means of a known
method, such as DPCM (differential pulse code modulation)
encoding.
[0030] The scrambling process is performed as described above. When
the data is input to the compressing and encoding section 6, only
the exchange of the palettes of the units has been performed.
Therefore, the compression efficiency is reduced little. This is
one of the advantages of the embodiment of the present
invention.
[0031] The exchange of the palettes as described above is carried
out by producing palette exchange data by means of a code. More
specifically, the data for producing the palette exchange data may
be obtained by inputting a password (a combination of several
numbers or alphabets) by the user or a common or public key. The
palette exchange data may be directly produced by a pseudo random
number arithmetic processing based on the password or key data. If
more highly scrambled data is required, palette exchange data,
depending on an image, may be produced by referring to image data.
The electronic image data can be scrambled by exchanging m palettes
of the palette exchange data thus produced. Further, the number of
palettes can be changed by changing the value of n, the degree of
scrambling may be changed. The value of n may be fixed or suitably
determined based on the total number of colors.
[0032] As shown in FIG. 2, the descrambling portion includes a
decoding section 7, a decomposing section 8, a palette exchanging
section 9, a palette exchange data producing section 10, a pixel
value converting section 11 and a synthesizing section 12.
[0033] The electronic image data, which has been scrambled by the
scrambling portion, is input to the decoding section 7. The
scrambled image data has been compressed and encoded. The decoding
section 7 decodes the compressed and encoded scrambled image data.
The decomposing section 8 decomposes the decoded image data to m
pieces of color decomposition data for each unit (m is an integer).
The palette exchanging section 9 associates the palettes of the
respective units with reference to the palette exchange data
managed by the palette exchange data producing section 10. The
pixel value converting section 11 converts the pixel value of the
color decomposition data of each unit. The synthesizing section 12
synthesizes the color decomposition data of the respective units
into a piece of electronic image data. Thus, the descrambling
process can also be carried out only by associating the pallets
corresponding to the respective units to the original palettes with
reference to the palette exchange data. Therefore, the descrambling
process can be simple and efficient.
[0034] The flow of the scrambling process of the image processing
method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be
described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
6.
[0035] In the following description, the configuration of the
scrambling portion shown in FIG. 1 is referred to if necessary.
[0036] When electronic image data is input to the color decomposing
section 1 (Step S1), the image data is decomposed at every c colors
(c is an integer) (Step S2). In this embodiment, for example, as
shown in FIG. 8, the image data is decomposed to the regions
(hereinafter referred to as the units) 1, 2, . . . and d at every
predetermined number of colors. The image data is sequentially
scanned from the upper left portion of FIG. 8, and the combination
of R, G and B of each pixel is checked. The size of a unit is
determined by the number of colors. When the number of colors of
the unit 1 reaches the predetermined value, the unit 2 starts.
[0037] Then, the palette forming section 2 produces palette data.
More specifically, a unit symbol as an identification number is
assigned to each unit, so that the palette data as shown in FIG. 9
is produced. The uppermost section in FIG. 9 represents the palette
data of the unit 1, the middle section represents the palette data
of the unit 2, and the lowermost section represents the palette
data of the unit d (d is an integer).
[0038] More specifically, the palette data 1 to d are produced, and
output in association with the unit data 1 to d (Steps S3-1, 3-2, .
. . , 3-d, 4-1, 4-1, . . . , 4-d, 5-1, 5-2, . . . , 5-d).
[0039] Then, the palette exchanging section 3 exchanges palette
data of the respective unit data, thereby performing the scrambling
process. At this time, the palette exchange data producing section
4 produces palette exchange data under the predetermined conditions
(Steps S6 and S7). The synthesizing section 5 synthesizes the unit
data (Step S8). The compressing and encoding section 6 compresses
and encodes the synthesized data (Step S9), and outputs the
scrambled electronic image data (Step S10). Thus, a series of
processing is ended.
[0040] The flow of the descrambling process of the image processing
method according to the embodiment of the present invention will be
described in detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.
7.
[0041] In the following description, the configuration of the
descrambling portion shown in FIG. 2 is referred to if
necessary.
[0042] When the electronic image data, which has been scrambled by
the scrambling portion, is input to the decoding section 7 (Step
S11), the decoding section 7 decodes the compressed and encoded
scrambled image data (Step S12). The decomposing section 8
decomposes the decoded image data into color decomposition data of
the respective units(Step S13). The palette exchange section 9
exchanges the palette data of the respective units to the original
state with reference to the palette exchange data produced by the
palette exchange data producing section 10 (Steps S14 and S15). The
palette exchange section 9 associates the unit data 1 with the
palette data 1, the unit data 2 with the palette data 2, . . . and
the unit data d with the palette data d (Step S16-1, S16-2, ,
S16-d, S17-1, S17-2, . . . S17-d). The pixel value converting
section 11 converts the pixel values of the color decomposition
data of each unit (Step S18-1, S18-2, . . . , S18-n). The
synthesizing section 12 synthesizes the color decomposition data of
the respective units (Step S19), and outputs a piece of electronic
image data (Step S20).
[0043] As described above, the image data is decomposed to the m
pieces of decomposition data, and the palette data corresponding to
the respective decomposition data are exchanged for each other.
Therefore, the image scrambling process relating to the color
information can be carried out by adding a simple structure. Thus,
it is possible to provide a scramble image processing method, which
can easily realize scramble image processing only by adding a
simple structure and suppress the reduction in compression ratio to
a relatively small degree.
[0044] The present invention is not limited to the embodiment
described above, but can be improved or modified variously without
departing from the gist of the invention. For example, the present
invention can be implemented as a recording medium recording a
computer program, an apparatus or system to realize the image
processing method described above.
[0045] Additional advantages and modifications will readily occur
to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the invention in its
broader aspects is not limited to the specific details,
representative devices, and illustrated examples shown and
described herein. Accordingly, various modifications may be made
without departing from the spirit or scope of the general inventive
concept as defined by the appended claims and their
equivalents.
* * * * *